Developer Journal: Defrag
Posted 2 decades ago Lead Map Design
Me oh my. I've not really been mapping much of late; Hammer is still crashing regularly and I'm hoping valve will fix it in the forthcoming SDK update. It's slated to arrive very soon, but soon isn't soon enough!
In the meantime I've been helping with the running-the-mod side of things a little more than usual, investigating different modeling packages (as Max is making me reach breaking point with its extreme fickleness) and posting on the public forums a little more as I'd been neglecting them a little. I've come to the conclusion that Max is a great modeling tool but likes to have a million things that can go wrong, Maya is more logical but rather clunky when poly modeling and Wings3d is... so simple that it makes you feel weird using it, but looks like it has a lot of cool features. I guess I might as well stick with max even though I hate it at times.
I've also reached the momentous conclusion that Valve's idea of developer documentation is very disappointing. Relying on the community to fill the sizeable blanks in complicated and potentially expansive documentation is just.. well, it just doesn't cut it for me. A lot of the wiki stuff is based on people just dicking about with SDK tools and working out how to do things themselves; the upshot is that what is listed in the wiki isn't necessarily straight from the horse's mouth. It's more like the horse went to the toilet, then some dude came along and picked through the remains and tried to figure out what the horse ate. Wait, what? In fact, the horse might not even be a horse -- it could be a giraffe. Ultimately, things are more frustrating than they ideally should be.
All I have to say is THANK GOD for Cannonfodda's studiocompiler, as it makes things so much easier when managing prop creation.
I've got Uni courseworks due on the 9th and 16th of December, then another in early January, so I'll have to manage my time better than usual in the coming weeks. I just want valve to fix the bloody hammer crash bug so I can get back to mapping regularly :/
"I'd hate to be a giraffe with a sore throat."
View all developer journals In the meantime I've been helping with the running-the-mod side of things a little more than usual, investigating different modeling packages (as Max is making me reach breaking point with its extreme fickleness) and posting on the public forums a little more as I'd been neglecting them a little. I've come to the conclusion that Max is a great modeling tool but likes to have a million things that can go wrong, Maya is more logical but rather clunky when poly modeling and Wings3d is... so simple that it makes you feel weird using it, but looks like it has a lot of cool features. I guess I might as well stick with max even though I hate it at times.
I've also reached the momentous conclusion that Valve's idea of developer documentation is very disappointing. Relying on the community to fill the sizeable blanks in complicated and potentially expansive documentation is just.. well, it just doesn't cut it for me. A lot of the wiki stuff is based on people just dicking about with SDK tools and working out how to do things themselves; the upshot is that what is listed in the wiki isn't necessarily straight from the horse's mouth. It's more like the horse went to the toilet, then some dude came along and picked through the remains and tried to figure out what the horse ate. Wait, what? In fact, the horse might not even be a horse -- it could be a giraffe. Ultimately, things are more frustrating than they ideally should be.
All I have to say is THANK GOD for Cannonfodda's studiocompiler, as it makes things so much easier when managing prop creation.
I've got Uni courseworks due on the 9th and 16th of December, then another in early January, so I'll have to manage my time better than usual in the coming weeks. I just want valve to fix the bloody hammer crash bug so I can get back to mapping regularly :/
"I'd hate to be a giraffe with a sore throat."